Three charts showig how working in London differs to other cities

I write about energy and industrials for City A.M. I'm particularly interested in geopolitics, energy policy and, of course, the ever lively oil markets.

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Jessica Morris

Half of people living in central London have a degree (Source: Getty)

A London working week is typically associated with long hours, heavy workloads as well as demanding clients, but a report released this week by Centre for Cities has shown there are some perks to working in the big smoke.

Londoners are more likely to be in employment than their counterparts in large, medium and small city centres. At the same time, they're much more reliant on public transport such as tubes and buses, which gets tricky when they're super crowded or plagued by strikes.

"In medium and small city centres there are bigger shares of people who are economically inactive: 18 per cent in medium city centres and 17 per cent in small city centres, compared to just nine per cent in large city centres," the report said.

Occupations across city centres

(Source: Centre for Cities)

And the jobs that Londoners do are pretty good, too.

"London in particular has the highest share of residents who are managers or senior officials, professionals or associate professionals (66 per cent)," the report said.

"City centres of small cities, on the other hand, have the highest share of residents working in lower skilled occupations – sales and customer service, process, plant and machine operatives, and elementary occupations (38 per cent)."

This might have something to do with the fact people who live in central London are a particularly brainy bunch with half holding degrees, compared to 37 per cent in large city centres, and 25 per cent in medium sized cities.

Methods of travel to work

(Source: Centre for Cities)

There's no prizes for guessing this one - Londoners are more likely to use the underground, light rail or a bus. However, they're less likely to take a car or van, probably due to the long traffic queues and the high costs associated with running a vehicle in the capital.

"In city centres, less than a quarter commute by car or van, compared to just over a half in suburbs and two thirds in hinterlands," the report said.

"This reflects the fact that city centre residents live closer to their workplace. 56 per cent travel less than 5km to work – while just 30 per cent of residents in the rural hinterlands travel less than 5km."

"But these travel patterns are not uniform across all city centres. In London, just under a quarter of all journeys are made by underground, and eight percent are made by car."